Jeff Sharlet on Piety and Corruption in American Politics
ListenSenators John Ensign, Jim DeMint, and Sam Brownback have been residents. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was a resident when he was a U.S. Congressman. 133 C St. S.E. is a tidy, red brick Washington D.C. rowhouse registered as a church and affilitated with “The Fellowship” or “The Family,” a Christian network of nonprofits many of the country’s lawmakers go to for spiritual counseling. The sex scandals of Ensign and Sanford have brought unwanted attention to ‘C Street’ and raise questions about the role of religion in politics. Journalist and contributing editor to Harper’s magazine JEFF SHARLET went undercover at The Family’s Arlington, Virginia compound, and has spent years researching it, and it was the subject of his 2008 book, The Family. Now he’s back with more insider interviews and new insights into this secret world in a book titled, C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy.
Listen:
[audio: 092810_110630.mp3]
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